|
Inspirational
Stories
Everybody
won
"Last
night was the last game for my eight-year-old son's soccer
team. It was the final quarter. The score was two to one,
my son's team in the lead. Parents shouted encouragement from
the sidelines as the boys clashed on the field. With less
than ten seconds remaining, the ball rolled in front of my
son's teammate, one Mikey O'Donnel. With shouts of "Kick
it!" echoing across the field, Mikey reared back and
gave it everything he had.
All around
me the crowd fell silent as the ball flew into the goal. Mikey
O'Donnel had scored!
Mikey
had scored all right, but in the wrong goal, ending the game
in a tie. For a moment there was total silence. You see Mikey
has Down's Syndrome and for him there is no such thing as
a wrong goal. All goals were celebrated by a joyous hug from
Mikey. He had even been known to hug the opposing players
when they scored.
The silence
was finally broken when Mikey, his face filled with joy, grabbed
my son, hugged him and yelled, "I scored! I scored. Everybody
won! Everybody won!"
For a
moment I held my breath, not sure how my son would react.
I need not have worried. I watched, through tears, as my son
threw up his hand in the classic high-five salute and started
chanting, "Way to go Mikey! Way to go Mikey!"
Within
moments, both teams surrounded Mikey, joining in the chant
and congratulating him on his goal. Later that night, when
my daughter asked who had won, my son smiled and replied,
"It was a tie. Everybody won!"
-Author Unknown
Free
to Soar
One windy
spring day, I observed young people having fun using the wind
to fly their kites. Multicolored creations of varying shapes
and sizes filled the skies like beautiful birds darting and
dancing in the heady atmosphere above the earth. As the strong
winds gusted against the kites, a string kept them in check.
Instead
of blowing away with the wind, they arose against it to achieve
great heights. They shook and pulled, but the restraining
string and the cumbersome tail kept them in tow, facing upward
and against the wind. As the kites struggled and trembled
against the string, they seemed to say, "Let me go! Let
me go! I want to be free!" They soared beautifully even
as they fought the imposed restriction of the string. Finally,
one of the kites succeeded in breaking loose. "Free at
last" it seemed to say. "Free to fly with the wind."
Yet freedom
from restraint simply put it at the mercy of an unsympathetic
breeze. It fluttered ungracefully to the ground and landed
in a tangled mass of weeds and string against a dead bush.
"Free at last" free to lie powerless in the dirt,
to be blown helplessly along the ground, and to lodge lifeless
against the first obstruction.
How much
like kites we sometimes are. The Lord gives us adversity and
restrictions, rules to follow from which we can grow and gain
strength. Restraint is a necessary counterpart to the winds
of opposition. Some of us tug at the rules so hard that we
never soar to reach the heights we might have obtained. We
keep part of the commandment and (pardon the pun) never rise
high enough to get our tails off the ground.
Let us
each rise to the great heights our Heavenly Father has in
store for us, recognizing that some of the restraints that
we may chafe under are actually the steadying force that helps
us ascend and achieve.
-Wayne
B. Lynn |
Cosmos
of Happiness
